Instead, they will have to deal with independent suppliers who set whatever price the market will bear, rather than a price set by a state-supervised competitive auction.

Consumers who rely on the same standard choice price could see Dominion's residential standard offer disappear by April 2017, if not a year earlier. Likewise, Columbia Gas of Ohio's business customers could lose Columbia's auction-based standard service rate in April 2014. Columbia's residential customers may face the same fate in 2018, though the change is less certain.

The sweeping changes in how the price of gas is set is the work of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which is on a course to completely eliminate the role of government in price setting, on the belief that competition among suppliers will automatically drive down prices.

Utility standard monthly prices have been set every year by a state-ordered and supervised auction that pits independent gas wholesalers against one another to supply each utility's customers who don't want to shop for a supplier on their own or settle for a rate negotiated by their city government or a group of governments.

The auction-set rates have become the benchmark price since 2006 when the first one was held for Dominion, helping keep independent supplier prices lower, insists the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. But independent suppliers have been opposed to the auctions from the beginning.

PUCO Chairman Todd Snitchler said the order "moves Ohio towards a more open and competitive market. . . ."

Snitchler's position is clearly a departure from the stance taken by former PUCO Chairman Alan Schriber, according to testimony from Teresa Ringenbach, senior manager of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Midwest for Direct Energy.

Testifying on behalf of the Ohio Gas Marketers Group and the Retail Energy Supply Association, Ringenbach said the commission's position under Schriber was that it would never completely exit regulation of gas prices. That position, Ringenbach testified, led some suppliers to close up their Ohio offices, not to reopen them until recently.

The consumers' counsel pushed for the creation of the auctions early in the decade after Dominion announced it no longer wanted to sell gas but instead just deliver it.

And the agency for months has tried to defeat, or delay, the change - arguing that "there is no need to fix something that isn't broken."

"The standard offer has given consumers a great option that can save them lots of money on their natural gas bills," Consumers' Counsel Bruce Weston said in a statement.

"Our settlements with the utilities will preserve this consumer benefit for at least the next few years. After that, the standard offer would continue for consumers unless others can convince the PUCO to end it."

Jeff Murphy, Dominion's managing director for commercial operations, has not decided whether to try to end the standard offer for residential customers.

He said about 80 percent of business and industry customers, particularly the largest customers, have left the utility's standard offer for contracts with independent suppliers.

Dominion intends to watch the smaller business customers during the next few years to see whether they can adjust to the changes, he said, reasoning that small businesses will behave more like consumers than the big commercial customers.

Reflecting his company's long-held position, Murphy said the state's policy has been toward complete deregulation of pricing for gas.

"The auction price is certainly a benchmark price. But if you look at state's energy policy, it talks about PUCO promoting competitive market," he said, calling the auction-set price "default regulation."

Raymond Frank, spokesman for Columbia, said there will be no changes for any of Columbia's business or residential customers unless at least 70 percent of them chose on their own to leave the utility's standard price.

Frank said about 40 percent of the business and industrial customers have chosen to deal with independent suppliers and about half of the residential customers have left for contracts with an independent.

If either Dominion or Columbia moves to end the standard price for consumers, the company will have to formally file an application, which is sure to be opposed and take a year to work through.

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